I love Writer’s Digest. I really do. But sometimes, they come along with some real doozies. Several years ago now, I received the following email in my inbox:

Don’t Loose Your Mind! – Live Webinar Thursday!

My first thought? I hope I don’t loose my mind. Loosening my mind would be a very bad thing, right?

My second thought was to read the actual email. I mean, Writer’s Digest holds a dear place in my heart because they have, in one place, so much information for the aspiring and experienced writer. I’ve also taken a webinar of theirs, and found it relatively useful. So read on, I did.

The email said:

Being a writer can make you crazy. The writer’s life is at once invigorating and exhausting, it can be isolating and wonderfully social, inspiring as well as demeaning. As writers we bring our deepest, most sensitive
selves to the page, and often the world can feel like a hyper-critical and uncaring receiver, where competition, criticism, and even the success of others can make writing feel like a chore, or worse-utterly terrifying. And yet, we’re driven to return to the page and express ourselves despite the uncertainty and the demands of day-to-day life.

How do we deal with all these contradictions, the isolation, the rejection, the irrational joys and sorrows of being a writer? In this live webinar you’ll learn many ways to kill the fear, or, as Robert Leckie said, shoot that old bear under your desk between the eyes.

With practical tips and tricks, examples from dozens of famous writers, and inspiration culled from years of experience as both an author and agent, instructor John Cusick provides the tools for tackling the writing life with gusto, enthusiasm, and balance. Learn healthy, productive techniques for combating the inner critic, utilize envy envy, and summon motivation. With humor and insight, this webinar will give attendees the skills to conquer the maddening uncertainties of writing and publishing, and to create a space for one’s writer self in the world.

I remember thinking Yes, to all of the first paragraph! I’m with you, WD!

But then, as I moved to the second paragraph, I began to wonder. A live webinar to tell me how to deal with rejection? Do I need someone else to help me figure out that rejection is a part of the business? Do I need someone to talk about feeling isolated, when isolating myself leads to actually writing? (Classic introvert, right?) And do I need to pay someone to tell me that many people get rejected and I will just need to suck it up? I’m sure you can figure out the answer to that question.

In the end, I didn’t sign up for the webinar, and many rejections later, I’m still surviving. I don’t even tear up when I receive a rejection. I just add the newest one to my email folder of rejections that might someday be labeled, “The Art of Infinite Rejections” or something like that.

I hope that Writer’s Digest had a good turnout for that long-ago webinar and I hope it was useful for someone. I just hope that no one really does loose their minds. Ever.